North Bay Police Chief Shawn Devine says North Bay residents shouldn’t fear that their city is unsafe.
That’s the message North Bay’s Top Cop had in a media conference Wednesday morning at Police Headquarters.
The Police service is reacting to an article published by MacLean’s this week that indicates North Bay is the fifth worst rated city when it comes to being sexually assaulted. St. John, New Brunswick came in as the worst city.
See the chart here: http://www.macleans.ca/news/canada/canadian-crime-explained-in-13-charts/image/10/
The numbers come from Statistics Canada’s 2015 Crime Severity Index.
The North Bay Police Service does not dispute Maclean Magazine’s recent analysis of the Statistics Canada data that rates North Bay, based on population, as the fifth most likely city to be sexually assaulted in in Canada.
A closer look at the numbers shows that there were 62 actual incidents of sexual assault in North Bay in 2015. Following this investigations into these incidents, the police charged 25 people.
“While we agree that this number is high, there is no number that is acceptable,” said Chief Shawn Devine, North Bay Police Service.
“Sexual assault is a crime that we take seriously. This stat can be seen as a positive sign that survivors of sexual assault are coming forward, that they trust that we will take them seriously, that their reports of sexual assault will be thoroughly investigated, and that sexual offenders will be charged.”
The North Bay Police Service is currently analyzing the national CSI results and preparing a crime report of its findings for the North Bay Police Services Board. The report will be presented at the Board’s next open session meeting on Wednesday, September 14th.
“The numbers are there, we can’t argue with the numbers,” Devine added.
“I just wish there was a clearer picture presented with that and that if people have concerns in this community that they are unsafe going out into the community with regards to sexual assaults, we have to frame that with some of the information we have provided that the majority of sexual assaults occur between people that are known to each other and again that is where we as the police service are asking for the public’s assistance - again we can’t solve all crimes ourselves as police, we need the involvement of educators and groups like Amelia Rising to work with us at educating people.
“This isn’t like someone needs to be afraid that they are walking down the street that they are going to be sexually assaulted in certain areas of the city - that’s not what it’s saying.”
